Well, those last two posts were really long, so it’s time to slow down just a little bit. You know, this has been an interesting week for me, one that immediately seemed like it wasn’t going to be all that good that blossomed into something much better. Those are great weeks, and I believe we all could use stuff like that.

On Monday, I had a guest post that I wrote show up on Rachel Lavern’s blog Fearfully ‘n Wonderfully Made titled Motivated To Get Things Done. In that post I talked about the different reasons, both positive and negative, that motivates people to do things, get things done, and determine what outcome they want. It’s kind of like being online; you can decide to use your talents to create spam and be loathe by everyone except other spammers, or you can use your talents to try to improve your lot and everyone else’s lot in a positive direction.

I was thinking about this concept of being motivated to do better things, and I happened to remember one of the best times I was ever motivated when I was a little younger. Back in 1988, Jesse Jackson was running for president of this country, and even though he didn’t win, he was the highlight of that entire political season, which culminated in his great speech at the Democratic National Convention.

What you see below is the last 8 minutes or so of that speech, which captured the imagination of everybody and had many of us looking for ways to affect the world positively the next day. Whether you like the man or not, you have to admit that this was inspiring in some fashion. Even if you decide you just can’t do it… well, it works for me. 🙂 Keep Hope Alive!

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Don’t surrender and don’t give up, is something even us bloggers can live by. I understand that we should dream, but that alone is not enough, we have to act on that dream and do something about it. An inspiring speech Mitch.

It certainly was, Sire, and you’re right, giving up should never be an option. Now, knowing when to end something and try something else is another thing entirely, but as long as one doesn’t just up and quit everything then it’s all good.

Motiation is important when blogging, and low traffic and rankings are my biggest motivation killers. I think the long term motivtion is one of the key factors to blog sucess. Right now I have low traffic despte posting 3 times a week.. I think the audio version of a post is a great ide, but it might also be an idea to record audio first and write the post from the audi instead? It is often esyer to speak thn to write.. However plst with motivating speaches is great for motivation., so thanks:-)

Thanks for stopping by Bjorn. I think visiting other blogs will eventually end your low traffic. As to the other thing, you’re talking about doing a transcript of an audio file; I’m thinking that would be overkill. Instead, I might write something on what the audio file is about and then invite people to listen to it, since the written word will help your web presence way more than an audio file will. Glad you enjoyed the video clip as well.

Well, Mitch, sometimes we don’t have anything but hope and we have to believe in order to make it happen. I don’t want to seem philosophical but every business, every action begins with hope, with the hope that you will complete it and do it right.

So keeping hope alive is a necessity for all of us.

I love motivational speeches, and if you are like me, it just pushes you further and higher.